Protectors
by Undergor
Summary: When Twilight is Captured by changelings, the other five and Vinyl Scratch must travel to Chanterlot on foot to try to rescue her. But they will meet obstacles on the way. Will they succeed? Will they even stay as one group? Find out when you read Protectors. Rated T for gore.
1. Prologue

Prologue

If you were Pinkie Pie you would throw a party right? Not today. In fact Pinkie's hair was strait. Her hair hasn't been strait since Twilight Sparkle accidentally changed their cutie marks. 'Twilight' Pinkie thought, her head once holding beautiful pink cotton candy looking hair drooping lower than before. Her blue eyes about to let out tears. 'And Spike. Gone, all gone' The pink earth pony slowed down. Her body ached seeing as she and the others had been walking for at least a day now. The cutie mark of three balloons; one yellow, two blue didn't resemble what she is now.

"Hey guys, I think we should stop." Vinyl Scratch, a white DJ unicorn with baby blue and dark blue hair, and a titi for a cutie mark, with oval shaped glasses, yelled out to the others. Mostly Rainbow Dash, since she was ahead of everyone and she's the most stubborn of the group.

"Why should we? We're almost there!" The fastest flyer in all of equestria with a rainbow main, cyan blue coat, and magenta eyes with a cutie mark of a rainbow lightning bolt yelled back, flying through the air.

"Because Pinkie is about to break." Vinyl demanded.

"Plus there's still two days till Chanterlot from here!" Apple jack added, an orange farm pony with straw blond hair in a ponytail with green eyes and freckles with a cutie mark of three apples. And she always has her cowpony hat on.

"Rainbow, I think it's time we take a break." Fluttershy, a shy, yellow, pegasus with blue eyes and a cutie mark of three pink butterflies, and her pink hair parted to the side, admitted to the pegasus flying next to her, in her small voice.

"Fine you guys take a break; I'll go and save Twilight myself!" And with that, Rainbow Dash was off.

"Rainbow! Wait!" Applejack warned.

"Where in Equestria does she think she's going?!" Rarity, a white unicorn fashionista with a purple curled mane, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of three diamonds, complained with her posh accent.

The five of them stopped.

"I don't know, but we best set up camp, it's gettin' late." Applejack replied.

An hour later, the moon was in the sky and it was dark. Fluttershy and Vinyl were fast asleep. Applejack and Rarity were warming up by the fire that Applejack had started. Pinkie Pie was off in the darkness being sad. Vinyl started snoring. Rarity and Applejack giggled a little and then noticed Pinkie in the distance.

Rarity stood up and said: "I'm going to go talk to her." Rarity walked over.

"Pinkamena Diane Pie!" She shouted. "You haven't talked to us all day and I want to know why!"

Pinkie looked at Rarity, crying and Rarity regretted that she had sounded so angry.

"Because it's my fault!"

"How on earth is this your fault?!"

"Because I'm the one who threw the party at the gazebo! And that's just where the changelings showed up!"

"You know as well as I do that the changelings would have torn up all of Equestria to find Twilight!"

"But I could have grabbed on to her and that might have been enough weight to stop the changeling from…"

"Pinkie! There was nothing you could have done."

"But…but…"Pinkie was whimpering now. Rarity walked up and hugged her. "I miss them so much!" Pinkie wailed.

"It's ok, I do to." Rarity whispered.


	2. Destruction

Chapter 1  
Destruction  
Twilight was forced to remember the events from two days ago: Pinkie had thrown one of her best parties yet, the music was playing, everypony was dancing, and she even hired Vinyl to be the DJ. Then a stampede of ponies came through and everypony was wondering what was going on. Then the swarm of changelings came and nopony could see at all. It started to clear up but then Twilight felt the ground drop beneath her very suddenly. Wait, no, she was being lifted off the ground! She checked to see if her wings were spasing out again but they were perfectly still. Then she realized;

"Oh no. Help!" She screamed.  
Spike grabbed her hoof and the changeling that snatched Twilight flew to Chanterlot. They took Twilight to a holding cell and Spike who knows where. From then they've tortured Twilight whenever they had the chance. The purple unicorn is now sitting in the corner of her cell, bruised and cut. Her cutie mark of a pink star surrounded by other stars is now slightly faded her purple eyes watering. Her purple mane with a pink streak is now torn and tangled. Changeling guards came up to her cell.  
"What do you want from me?" She said with a whimper. It echoed off the walls of the cell.  
"You know very well what we want from you." One of the guards replied in a deep dark voice.  
A changeling looks like a fly mixed with a unicorn and they're black. The changeling guards dragged her away, the whole way Twilight kicking and screaming. They opened a door, went through, and dropped her, still not letting her run away. Finally she realized what she was looking at. She was in Princess Celestia's throne room, but at the throne did not sit Princess Celestia, but a changeling. At first Twilight thought of Queen Chrysalis, but no, it was a male. A king, maybe? Everyone was silent. Finally Twilight had the courage to ask the question.  
"Who are you?" She blurted  
The changeling king in front her gave out a little chuckle and then replied.  
"Why, I thought you'd never ask. You were so quiet when you came in I thought you might have died, Celestia forbid that ever happen."  
He paused, taking a moment to stare into her eyes with a grim look on his face. He had a voice that sort of reminded Twilight of Flim or Flam.  
"You look… scared." He continued seriously this time.  
Twilight realized that she was breathing very heavily now and had a look on her as if she were about to have a heart attack.  
"Anyways," He started up again, more cheerfully this time. "I am King Nysalis, son of Queen Chrysalis." He took a cheesy bow.  
"Where's Spike!" Twilight lashed at him.  
"Oh, getting anxious are we?" He laughed. Twilight had an infuriated expression. "Don't worry Spike is right here…"  
Nysalis pulled a rope to his right and a curtain opened to his left. Behind the curtain was a cage, and in the cage was a tied up Spike with a cloth over his mouth. He looked depressed. The purple dragon's green scales were messed up.  
"Spike!" Twilight said happily as she tried to run to him only to be stopped by the guards. Spike immediately noticed Twilight and joy filled his face. Twilight looked back a Nysalis with an angry expression.  
"Why are you keeping him here?! Why can't you let him go?!" She yelled at him.  
"Because a dragon is a rare creature, my dear Twilight…" He looked at her with a teeth-showing, smile. "And I like rare creatures."  
"Now, for what I really brought you here for." He said, horn charging. "Guards, bring her over here."  
Spike grabbed and shook the bars as the guards brought Twilight closer to Nysalis, Twilight fighting every bit of the way. Finally getting her in range of Nysalis. He lowered his head down aiming his horn at Twilight. Spike couldn't bear to watch. It sounded like a firework when it went off and there was a huge burst of light. Spike was knocked back into the opposite side of the cage. He was dazed; he couldn't see anything or hear anything except a loud and high continuous beep. Then he saw Twilight… amidst all the light flooding into his emerald eyes, but her eyes were white and her cutie mark was all black. The baby dragon's brain couldn't take it anymore. Spike blacked out.

Rarity was being shaken. It was an earthquake! She jolted upright and screamed at the top of her lungs and then heard Pinkie's voice:  
"Rarity, stop freaking out. Get your saddle bag on and get going."  
"Oh. Right." Rarity blushed.  
"Hurry up ya'll, you're the last one ready." Applejack added.  
And so, they set off towards Chanterlot once again. At about noon, Rarity, who was behind everyone else, let out a Whoa! Applejack looked behind her shoulder, still walking.  
"Sorry, tripped on a rock." Rarity said.  
"We don't have time for rocks!" Pinkie lashed out.  
"Yes my brother. No time for rocks." A deep dark voice called out.  
All of them were stopped in their tracks except Pinkie who was too busy saving Twilight to care about some deep, dark, mysterious voice.  
"Pinkie! Get back here!" Applejack warned.  
"No! I'm saving Twilight!" Pinkie yelled back.  
Just then two smiling Raritys came out from behind some rocks, blocking their sight of Pinkie. The Rarity behind them jumped up and pinned Fluttershy to the ground.  
"They're changelings!" Applejack yelled out.  
Pinkie turned around and ran up behind the two Raritys but was pushed to the side suddenly and found herself pinned by herself. The copy was smiling, crazily. Vinyl round house kicked Rarity off Fluttershy. Applejack rushed the Rarity on her left at the same time getting her rope out. While pinning one Rarity she lassoed another and tied her up by her hooves. Vinyl rushed the last Rarity. The two of them that weren't pinned by Applejack turned back into changelings and flew off. The other one's neck was snapped by AJ. Another changeling flew up from behind a rock. Fluttershy looked behind the rock to find Rarity who jumped up to Fluttershy and hugged her.  
"Fluttershy!" She said in true joy.  
"Umm… Your welcome?" Fluttershy whispered.  
As soon as the imposter Pinkie noticed Applejack and Vinyl running towards her, she threw Pinkie behind a rock and ran after her. Applejack jumped up on top of the rock and saw the two pinkies fighting.  
"AJ, Help." One of the Pinkies said.  
Applejack jumped down and together quickly defeated the other pinkie. She ran off crying.  
"Thanks AJ!" Pinkie said happily and gave Applejack a hug.  
"You're welcome. C'mon ya'll we need to keep moving!" Apple jack ordered.  
"Oh no!"  
"What is it now, Rarity?" Applejack asked glumly.  
"They took my saddle bag!" She claimed.  
"And mine, too." Pinkie said depressed.  
"It doesn't matter let's just get a move on!" AJ ordered.

Rainbow Dash moved swiftly throughout Chanterlot. She couldn't just fly to her destination because there were changelings up in the sky to. Although it was now the capitol of changelings, Rainbow Dash was not scared. In fact, she was fearless. She had always been fearless, and that is why she was not afraid to go solo. If a guard saw her it would be too late by the time Rainbow Dash got to them. She finally worked her way to the front door of the throne room. She knocked out the two guards before she moved on.  
Nysalis heard two muffled bumps outside the door.  
"You." He said to one of the four guards at his disposal. "Go see what's out there."  
The guard reluctantly went out the door to see what was wrong. When the door finally closed they heard a series of muffled bumps and shouts, then there was a pause. Finally, a cyan blue hoof came out from behind the door. Then the rest of the Rainbow pegasus came through the door. As soon as Rainbow walked through the door Nysalis recognized the pony as Twilight's friend. He smiled.  
"Twilight," He said, teeth showing. "Welcome our guest."  
Twilight walked up from behind the shadows, eye's glowing white, and cutie mark black. She lowered her head, horn charging. Dash was confused. What had become of her friend?  
"You will soon regret when you came into Nysalis' kingdom" The changling prince said. An entirely black bolt emitted from the purple unicorn's horn, heading straight for Rainbow Dash. She reacted immediately, swerving to the right, and then ran towards Twilight. Another bolt came by but the cyan blue pegasus swerved to the left and took flight, still heading towards Twilight. Twilight shot one last bolt before being kicked hard in the face and being knocked on her back. Rainbow Dash landed and skidded to a halt before looking back at her formerly trusted friend. Twilight got up as if nothing had happened. Rainbow Dash took flight and tried to rush her again, looking into twilight's white glowing eyes. Rainbow Dash suddenly didn't care. She saw the darkness that consumed Twilight, swelling up inside her. She heard her cries for help.  
CRACK!  
Rainbow Dash screamed in pain, falling to the cold hard floor, clutching her wing. She got up her vision blurred, trying to walk it off. She stumbled out the window, falling, falling, falling, and blackness.

AJ, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Vinyl trotted up the mountains toward Chanterlot.  
"Why couldn't we have taken the train…?" Rarity complained  
"Rarity, don't you remember?" Fluttershy replied. "The changelings blew up the train."  
"O, I know that!" Rarity lashed out.  
Fluttershy whimpered.  
"I'm sorry. It's just that I'm really tired." Rarity apologized.  
"We all are, Rarity." Vinyl admitted.  
They entered a narrow path, the walls made entirely of rock, too steep to climb up, the path winding and twisting. Then rocks fell and they heard panting and whimpering. They stopped. Then an out-of-breath Rainbow Dash fell from the top of the rocky wall onto her back. Everybody gathered around the obviously hurt Rainbow Dash.  
"Twilight… is…" She said between whimpers.  
Fluttershy immediately picked up Rainbow Dash complaining about how obviously hurt she was and that she needed constant care and attention.  
"Fluttershy..." Rainbow stopped her, softly. "I'm fine."  
"But your not fine." Fluttershy continued. "You need to rest."  
Rainbow was not one to give up.  
"But... Twilght..."  
"We all want to save Twilight, Sugar" Applejack said calmly. "But Fluttershy's right, you need rest."  
Against every bone in her body, even the broken ones, She gave up. They found a nice plateau and set up a tent for Fluttershy to work in, and, as it was getting late, they set up camp. Vinyl didn't know how to set up a camp, so he thought he'd make himself useful by helping Fluttershy with Rainbow Dash. He walked into the tent and saw Fluttershy looking puzzled at Rainbow Dash who was lying on a makeshift bed.  
"Hey Fluttershy, whats going on?" She asked.  
"Oh, hey Vinyl." Fluttershy looked away from Rainbow Dash and up at Vinyl."I'm just looking at this bone to see what I should do with it." She motioned to a bone sticking out of Rainbow's back leg.  
"That looks pretty bad." Vinyl replied. "But she seems so calm."  
"I had to tell her to calm down while I was bandaging up her wing." Fluttershy explained. Vinyl noticed that Dash's wing was now bandaged. "But now I have this leg to worry about. I... I... I Think I have to push it back in."  
Rainbow started cowering.  
"Hey, Rainbow, it'll be fine." Vinyl reassured her.  
"Do you mind helping me." Fluttershy asked.  
"That's what I came into the tent for" Vinyl walked over to Fluttershy. "What do I do?"  
"You need to comfort Rainbow Dash while I push the bone back in."  
"Ok." She walked over to Rainbow Dash. She had tears in her eyes and she was biting her lip. "It's going to be fine Dash. It'll only hurt a little, plus Fluttershy knows what she's doing, right Fluttershy?"  
"Oh, I don't know. I've never had to push a bone back in somepony's body before."  
Rainbow Dash whimpered.  
"Fluttershy..." Vinyl reminded her.  
"Oh." She realized what she said. "Yes I know very well what I'm doing. Ok, on three. one, two, three!"  
Rainbow Dash screamed so loud that ponies across Equestria could hear her. She could barely hear anything, her vision was blurry, and and she could only feel the searing pain in her back leg. Vinyl started pinning her to the bed and amongst all the pain she could feel her bone being driven into her leg. Vinyls mouth was moving but no words were coming out and all she could hear was a constant beeping noise. She was still struggling, she needed to get away from the pain. She heard a scream and at the same time feeling a stinging sensation go down her leg. The helpless pegasus screamed once more, she couldn't bare the pain anymore, she just wanted it to be over. She was now fighting Vinyl, taking every chance she had to kick her or slap her. She felt her leg become wet and sticky, and the substance slowly spread over the bed. She glanced at it and discovered it was red. Was it blood? Was it hers? Before she could figure it out her head was turned by Vinyl to face Her. She was smiling and it sort of comforted Dash but then Applejack walked in and the orange farmpony's face immediately went in shock. Fluttershy was telling her something as she was putting pressure on her leg. Applejack got out her rope and tied up the still struggling Rainbow Dash. Her head was once again turned to face Vinyl, but she could no longer be comforted by that smile. She jerked her head back to see Applejack who seemed to be arguing with Fluttershy. Applejack picked up a large stick and started walking toward Rainbow and she started struggling even more. Once again, her head was turned to face Vinyl but this time she pushed away making it clear that she didn't want it to happen again. She faced Applejack again who was now raising the stick. Rainbow changed her mind, she didn't want it to be over, not like this! Whack!

Rainbow Dash woke up in a pool of her own blood. 'Ew' she thought to herself. She found herself lying next to the snoring head of Vinyl Scratch, and the rest of him was on the floor. She saw Fluttershy practically hugging her leg and she nudged her away. Then she remembered the ropes.  
"Seriously, Applejack." She muttered under her breath.  
She tried to wriggle free but the ropes were to tight and then she came up with a plan. She managed to get her good wing free and cupped it around Vinyl's head. Then she used his horn to cut one rope. The rope was then loose enough for Rainbow Dash to break free. She limped out of the tent. It was a chilly morning so she made a fire from a wood pile that Applejack must have set up last night. About an hour passed before Rarity walked out of her tent she was sharing with Pinkie Pie.  
"Good morning, Rainbow Dash." She said politely.  
"Morning Rare." Rainbow said tiredly.  
"Wait..." Rarity hesitated. "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing out of bed!"  
"Uhhh! I'm fine Rarity!" Rainbow said annoyed.  
"You are not fine! You have a broken leg and wing!"  
"You know what I meant." She said quietly.  
Applejack walked out of her tent and noticed that Rainbow somehow got out of the ropes.  
"What are ya'll doing out of bed, Rainbow Dash.?" She asked suspiciously. "And how did you get out of my ropes?"  
"Uhhh! I am fine." She stood up and stomped her back hoof on the ground her eyes widened and squeaked ow.  
"Exactly." Applejack said.  
"I'm not going back in bed." She said stubbornly.  
"Fine." Applejack gave in.  
There was some silence  
"Uh, Rainbow Dash" Rarity asked awkwardly.  
"Yea," rainbow replied.  
"What happened after you left?" She asked hesitently.  
"I think its best if she tells about it when everyone's around to hear it." Applejack bumped in.  
"And I don't really want to talk about it very much" Rainbow added.  
They waited until the others got out of bed and Rainbow told her tale.  
"After I left you guys, which I regret, I snuck into the throne room in Chanterlot, apparently this prince, named Nysalis, is the leader of the changeling attack. He's imprisoned Spike and some how got total control of Twilight's body and I don't know what happened to the princesses. I had this big fight with Twi and then I fell out the window. I don't know how I survived, I guess my good wing caught some air and cushioned my fall just enough for me to survive. Then I went to you guys as soon as possible."  
The ponies murmured about what had just been said. Applejack concluded that they need to go faster in fear for Twilight. They went further up the mountain and eventually reached the Chanterlot train station. There were guards everywhere.  
"Alright, we're gonna need a plan to take out those guards." AJ said.  
"I'll fly up and take 'em down before you can say-" Rainbow was interrupted by Fluttershy.  
"No flying!"  
"No flying!?" Rainbow Dash grumbled about this thought but then agreed it was for the best seeing as she had a broken wing."Alright, but if I cant do it, who will?"  
"Your not the only pony who can take out a few gaurds." Applejack said, offended.  
This time it was AJ's turn to weave her way around Chanterlot, leading the other ponies and taking out guards. Finally they reached the Chanterlot castle. To many guards were at the front, so they got into one of the towers, using Applejack's rope. They went down the tower and entered a hallway. As they were turning a corner they heard,  
"Intruders! Intruders!" Coming from a changling. Applejack knocked him out but it was to late. There were more than thirty changlings for each pony. They ran, weaving along the hallways losing one changling after another but there were still to many. They finally got out of sight, AJ opened a door and everypony got in safely. When everypony had caught their breath Applejack noticed something familiar In the fairly large room.  
"What the Hay?!" She said  
"What is it?" Vinyl asked.  
"It's that mirror thingy that Twilight went in."  
Sure enough, the mirror that acts as a gateway to earth was in the room.  
"Why is it here, shouldn't it be at the Crystal Empire?" Fluttershy asked.  
"I think Princess Celestia move it here for better protection after that whole Sunset Shimmer Incident." Rarity Implied.  
Just then Pinkie Pie jumped at Fluttershy and turned into a changling and pointed it's fangs at her neck.  
"They're in here!" It hollered. "If any of you come close I bite."  
Fluttershy gasped and the other ponies stepped back. Five other changelings stepped in and forced the other ponies on the ground. Then Pinkie Pie, the real Pinkie Pie burst through the window, tackled the changeling holding Fluttershy, and as if in synch, the other ponies knocked out four of the five other changelings. But the changelings outside must have heard ruckus, because now they were swarming in the room.  
"Everypony, into the portal!" Pinkie Pie commanded.  
Rarity jumped in first then Rainbow Dash, then Applejack, then, realizing was ok Vinyl jumped. Pinkie Pie jumped in but before Fluttershy could a changeling grabbed her back hoof. Pinkie Pie grabbed her front hoof but was still being sucked in by the portal.  
"Aaaaagh!" Pinkie Pie strained out in pain. "It hurts!"  
"Pinkie Pie!" Fluttershy yelped. "You need to let go!"  
"No! I'm not leaving you behind! Niaaaagh!"  
"I'll be fine. You need to go and be with our friends, they need you!"  
"And I need you!"  
"If you wont do it for them, do it for me, do it for Twilight, do it for Equestria!"  
Pinkie pie paused then looked at Fluttershy with sad eyes.  
"I'll miss you!" Pinkie Pie then let go of the tan pegasus, going into the portal just before it closed and it won't open again for another thirty moons.


End file.
